July 13, 2020
PESTLE Analysis with Mind Mapping
Majority of us are so busy typing away at our desks, analysing our company’s Twitter feed and reading through reams of information that we can quickly succumb to a blinkered business perspective. PESTLE analysis puts a spotlight on the aspects of your business that you might overlook owing to your daily hustle.
However, the world keeps spinning, and external factors such as new legal policies or the latest technology keep rising up. They can pounce on your businesses from any angle. Avoid being consumed by internal affairs of your business and become more in tune with PESTLE Analysis technique. It will keep you aware of the constantly changing external factors.
PESTLE Analysis should be used to provide a context for your business’ role in relation to external factors. It covers Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental factors.
Mind mapping is the perfect tool for the PESTLE Analysis technique. This is because you can capture limitless amount of information on one page without losing a clear structure. Mind mapping massively reduces the time needed to prepare and structure your work. It gives you a complete picture view at all times.
The importance of each category will vary from business to business. However, PESTLE Analysis remains a proven technique that can help, and sometimes save your business from nasty external surprises.
Let’s start off by looking at the Political factors
A PESTLE Analysis will help you uncover the facts that can impact your business. The Political factors to research should include new legislation, such as the national minimum wage and tax rates. Political factors are changing constantly. For example, if a new government is elected, this may affect the amount of tax your business has to pay.
Economic factors
Businesses often rely on crunching numbers because it gives them a feeling of control over their future. However, by looking at the ‘big picture’ and taking the external factors into consideration, you can manage your business economy accurately. External Economic factors that affect businesses are inflation, unemployment, interest rates and exchange rates. Having the external Economic factors mapped out could enable you to predict future economic trends. For example, a predicted recession would prevent your business from increasing the workforce.
Ayoa works with all of the most-used desktop tools, so you can easily convert your mind maps into a range of other formats, such as a Word document, PDF and more. It allows you to turn the presentation mode on to present your mind map to your team. You can even turn your mind maps into tasks and create workflows in our task boards.
Social factors
Social-cultural factors are variable and subject to constant change. Nevertheless, they can have a huge impact on the performance of your business. Social factors to analyse are trends in technology, fashion, food, education, religion and politics. With the development of social media, tracking social trends is easier now, in contrast to previous years. It is also important to be aware of the demographic factors that can affect your business. For example, if you are a business that manufactures car seats for babies and toddlers and demographic data shows that a baby boom has recently hit your local area – you can prepare for an increase in demand for your product.
Ayoa is a convenient tool for when you are conducting research because you can easily attach, organise and prioritise information. You can add the details of your research to your maps by inserting notes, images, links, files, floating text, comments and more. Mind mapping encourages you to think creatively, and will enhance your creative vision. In the famous words of Steve Jobs, “A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”
Technological factors
With huge technological advances sweeping across the globe, you need to be in the know regarding what technology is new, and how it is affecting both business and consumer markets. New and innovative technologies can provide opportunities for businesses to incorporate new breakthroughs and inventions to cut costs and develop new projects. Mind Maps can provide succinct subject overviews that can make even the most complex factors easy to understand. So even if you are a self-confessed technophobe, Mind Mapping will make the most complex technological gismo comprehensible.
Legal factors
The dangers of crippling litigation should be a top priority. Legal errors can often take you by surprise and damage your company’s bottom line. Alternatively, many government laws are there for your protection, so whatever way you look at it, staying on top of your legal obligations is in your interest. Legal factors can include health and safety, equal opportunities, consumer laws and much more depending on your business. Businesses need to be in the know regarding what is and what is not legal in order to function successfully. If your business trades globally, the legalities can become complicated as every country has its own laws.
Environmental factors
The external environmental and ecological factors refer to climate, global warming and weather. Becoming more ecologically friendly is a hot topic at the moment. Governments are clamping down on multinationals who exploit the environment with heavy fines and restrictions. Consequently, considering your business’ environmental impact could enable you to restructure your business and could potentially lead to you becoming more efficient and a more ‘green’ business.
Conclusion
A PESTLE Analysis requires you to analyse large volumes of information. The visual nature of mind mapping can help you to get a clear and structured overview of this information and generate creative uses for your findings. It is a great way to safeguard your business as this process will enable you to be prepared for any kind of surprises coming from the external factors affecting your work.
The all-in-one remote work toolkit
Ayoa is an all-in-one platform that allows teams to collaborate seamlessly while working from home. Integrations with Zoom and Google Drive allow you to stay productive and avoid switching between apps.
Try it for free